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How is Bisq going to make their “decentralised” cryptocurrency exchange really decentralised? They’re going to set up a DAO — a decentralised autonomous organisation, free of the taint of human control! In information security, the term for “immutable smart contract, immune to human interference” is “sitting duck for hackers,” as The DAO demonstrated in 2016. Chapter 10 of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain is an exhaustive writeup of why immutable smart contracts are a bad idea for pretty much every reason, and real-life smart contracts keep demonstrating this, over and over — so I look forward to someone draining Bisq shortly after it goes fully autonomous.

Bitcoin is so clunky to use on its own blockchain that a pile of crypto companies and exchanges want to trade it on the Ethereum blockchain instead — WBTC is an Ethereum ERC-20 token backed by Bitcoin, with BitGo as custodian. At least it makes a change from the flood of “stablecoins,” tokens backed by the US dollar — the most exciting news in cryptocurrency is … a bunch of coins that utterly rely on the existing financial system and the US dollar.

The Royal Mint was going to do a gold-backed cryptocurrency — but the UK Treasury said no. With a side order of “what on earth were you thinking.”

“So it is no surprise that whenever ‘blockchain’ has been piloted in a traditional setting, it has either been thrown in the trash bin or turned into a private permissioned database that is nothing more than an Excel spreadsheet or a database with a misleading name.” Nouriel Roubini doesn’t like “blockchain” any more than he likes cryptocurrencies.

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The content of this site is journalism and personal opinion. Nothing contained on this site is, or should be construed as providing or offering, investment, legal, accounting, tax or other advice. Do not act on any opinion expressed here without consulting a qualified professional. I do not hold a position in any crypto asset or cryptocurrency or blockchain company.